CDC NHSN LTCF Weekly Healthcare Personnel (HCP) & Resident COVID-19 Vaccination Module Page UPDATED

Weekly health care personnel (HCP) & Resident COVID-19 Vaccination Weekly COVID-19 Vaccination Data Reporting Long-term care facilities can track weekly COVID-19 vaccination data for residents and healthcare personnel (HCP) through NHSN. February 2023 and January 2023 Updates Person-Level (Event-level) COVID-19 Vaccination Forms – Instructions and Guidance Documents INSTRUCTIONS FOR REPORTING …

Turnover Solutions Series – Part 1: Interpreting the Staff Turnover Rate

During a QAA/QAPI meeting, the director of human resources announces the monthly staff turnover rate and shares information about a job fair she will attend. After this report, another department director takes a turn sharing data, and the meeting carries on in this manner until all departments have spoken. There …

2022 NASEM Quality of Nursing Home Report – Moving Recommendations to Action

From the John A. Hartford Foundation: Public Policy & Aging Report (PP&AR) has released a Special Issue, “2022 NASEM Quality of Nursing Home Report: Moving Recommendations to Action.” PP&AR, a publication of The Gerontological Society of America, supplemental issue focuses on specific recommendations from the 2022 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report, “The …

Retaining Talent: Check-In with New Employee Template

When new employees see their leader is invested in their success, including proficiency in their job performance as well as becoming a part of team, the odds of retaining the employee increase dramatically. AAPACN’s Retaining Talent: Check-In with New Employee Template will guide leaders to check in with employees over …

Q&A: What are some best practices for providing a welcoming and thorough clinical orientation for nurses and unlicensed staff? 

Question: What are some best practices for providing a welcoming and thorough clinical orientation for nurses and unlicensed staff?  Answer from Denise Winzeler, BSN, RN, LNHA, DNS-MT, QCP-MT: AAPACNS’s Onboarding Essentials: Welcoming Staff to Promote Retention Tool provides education for department managers and administration as well as tools leaders can use …

Five Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining MDS Coordinators

Written by Michael Daniels, RN, DNS-CT, QCP, RAC-CT, RAC-CTA All one needs to do is peruse the long-term care (LTC)/skilled nursing facility (SNF) job openings online for a few minutes to realize that something is amiss. Frenzied healthcare staffing recruiters seem to crawl from the woodwork as they compete to …

Staff Retention: The Power of Purpose and Meaningful Work

When the pandemic pummeled the nursing home workforce, nursing homes lost more jobs than any other healthcare setting. This loss compounded the staffing shortage facilities were already confronting, leaving many facility leaders physically and emotionally exhausted and desperate for solutions to solve this problem. The good news is that all …

NAC Job Description

The nurse assessment coordinator’s role in ensuring compliance with complex federal requirements is paramount to the success of the financial operations of a facility and the care of residents. Use this NAC Job Description, to create and tailor your own job description for this specialized position. For permission to use …

CMS QSO Memo QSO-22-15 Re: COVID-19 Public Heath Emergency Nursing Home Waivers Updated (8/22)

Update to COVID-19 Emergency Declaration Blanket Waivers for Specific Providers REVISED Memo # QSO-22-15-NH & NLTC & LSC REVISED Posting Date 2022-08-29 Fiscal Year 2022 Summary CMS continues to review the need for existing emergency blanket waivers issued in response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency (PHE). …

PBJ Takes Center-Stage: What the DNS Needs to Know

The Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) electronic staffing data system remains a little bit of a mystery to many directors of nursing services (DNSs), but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is going all-in on using auditable PBJ data in three key areas that can significantly impact nursing homes: The …